A Glendale charter stiffing its teachers?

by David Safier

Another day, another charter school story. This time it's Discovery Community School in Glendale, which is having some financial troubles and hasn't been paying its teachers.

[The owner, Banipal] Bejamin, showed 3TV a letter to his staff asking them to wait until August for their April paycheck.

The former principal who helped Benjamin get the school running with the understanding he would get paid for the time he put in says Benjamin owes him $25,000. Benjamin says there was no contract for the work, so no money is owed.

Financial problems like this are common in business. But should Banipal Benjamin be in the charter school business? What qualifications did the Charter Schools Board see that led them to allow Benjamin to run a charter school? According to a Charter Board document, Benjamin provided no education history. He was a "Self-employed electrical contractor until 10/23/09, when his company was dissolved." At the time of the application, he was working for Phoenix Energy Products.

The other member of the governing board was Patricia Shaw, "co-founder and President of Intelli-Schools," who once served as the President of the Arizona Charter Schools Association (a private association not connected with the AZ Charter Schools Board).

Discovery Community School leases its school from the Assyrian Church of the East, on its property. Banipal Benjamin is, according to the Facebook page for Benjamin's BNE Ahsur Organization which runs the school, an "Assyrian Christian from Baghdad Iraq, emigrated to U.S.A in 1979."

Looking through all this information, I have to wonder why Benjamin, a man with no known education background and a sketchy, questionable business background, would be given a charter to run a school for elementary school children. For all I know, he's a fine, honest, upstanding gentleman — though maybe not. When reporter Crystal Cruz went to the school to talk to Benjamin, she asked two men if either of them was Benjamin. One walked by her muttering something unintelligible. That was Benjamin. Doesn't look good for that fine, honest, upstanding gentleman part, does it?